Players inch closer to the podium as Senior Nationals bring the fire

The second leg of the Senior National Table Tennis Championships, being played at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, came to an end with many top players inching closer to the medal podium set for next weekend. Chelsea Edghill and Natalie Cummings were also crowned the winners in the women’s doubles.

The “C” Class Open Draw saw players turn up on the first day, but by the end of the night, it was only Vicente Henery, Saalih Rahim, Walter Marcus and Ishaka Jackman who had to do battle in the semifinals to book their final spots.
Rahim dominated Henery in semifinal one. The encounter was quick and simple as the match was over before anyone knew it. The scores read 3-0 (7,7,9).
In the other matchup, Marcus and Jackman wowed the crowd as their fixture ended 3-2. Both athletes ended 2-2, but the final game came down to the wire, and Jackman had the better of Marcus. The scores read (-9, -9,4,8,9).
In the U21 Men’s Singles, Jonathan Van Lange, Kyle Chung, Krystian Sahadeo and Colin Wong were set to do battle in their semifinal bout. Van Lange and Wong were the two victors, and face each other next week Sunday in the U21 finals.
In match one, Van Lange defeated Sahadeo 4-0 (6,7,3,8), and while the scores reflected an easy victory, Sahadeo made Van Lange work for his win.
In the other semifinal, Colin Wong made light work of Kyle Chung, and while Chung did fight, Wong was too hot to handle, winning 4-0 (4,8,3,4).
In the 21-Years-and-Under ladies’ match, Jasmine Billingy and Thuraia Thomas will be pitted against each other next week when they battle for the top spot. Both athletes are tied on 4 points. However, the ladies did generate some excitement, as the third-place match between Crystal Melville and Samara Sukhai was worth the wait.
Being the youngest in the category, Sukhai took down the much senior Melville 3-1 (-7, -10,5, -5) to take third place.
The men’s doubles match, which had a total of 30 players, was worth it all, as all the big guns came out to play. The likes of Shemar Britton teaming up with Jonathan Van Lange, the Wong brothers, and even GTTA President Godfrey Munroe teaming up with Christopher Franklin created a scintillating segment of play. When the curtains game down on all the action, it was Van Lange/Britton, Nirran Bissu/Terrence Rausch, Franklin/Munroe who won their matches 3-0, while the Wong brothers came in 3-2.
In the women’s doubles, there was only one group which consisted of Chelsea Edghill/Natalie Cummings, Thuraia Thomas/Crystal Melville and Jasmine Billingy/Samira Sukhai. This was played via round robin format, and in the end the dominant force of Edghill/Cummings prevailed as they earned the top spot among their peers. They were able to beat out Melville/Thomas 3-0 (5,4,5) and Billingy/Sukhai 3-0 (3,3,8).
In the final matchup of the night, the mixed doubles team duked it out, and at the close of play, group 1’s Chelsea Edghill/Shemar Britton topped group 2 with four points, while group 2’s Christopher Franklin and Natalie Cummings led with four points as well.
The action will continue next Saturday and Sunday with the B Class, Singles in the men’s and ladies’ seniors, Men’s KO rounds, with the finals set for later on in the evening.